Well, does it look like yet another last-place finish in the SoCon, or is there a chance we could see some improvement this year? I kind of lean towards the former. This program is a trainwreck. I mentioned this in another forum, but could someone PLEASE tell me why Traylor is still at Wofford after all this losing and all the transfers from the program? I hear some parents complain about him at games as well concerning the way he uses (and abuses) some of his players.

A trainwreck? Who are you to mock..you graduated in '94? Was Wofford D1 in '94...did you guys beat a perrenial top 10 team in the country or play a schedule even close to the one these guys play...Maybe if people started supporting the program instead of mocking it then it wouldn't be a "trainwreck." Maybe you should ask the players if they like Traylor and if they consider their season a "trainwreck" before you mock because you won 25 games when Wofford played in d2...I think if these guys on the team last year played the likes of the schools you played instead of playing Clemson, USC, Georgia or any of the schools in Conf. (one of the top conf. in the country) then you wouldn't be calling for traylor's head or disregarding the hardwork these kids put into the season...but again, who am I to talk, I didn't win 25 games in d2...

(1) The great thing about message boards is that anyone can comment. If you like Traylor (or he was your coach), you have the right to defend him, just like some else does to criticize him.
(2) Traylor's record at Wofford is awful and shows no signs of progress (I am especially troubled by the excessively long losing streaks)
2001 17-31--9th
2002 26-31 7th
2003 9-40--11th, last place
2004 17-30--10th of 11
2005 17-37--10th of 11
0 first team All-SoCon selections
(3) No one expects to beat Clemson, Ga., and USC, but most people are tired of always being one of the worst teams in the Southern Conference. It is also troubling that other small SC schools have done so well in baseball. Just because you could beat DII schools, does not justify being a cellar dweller in the SoCon.
(4) It also fact that there are a number of quality baseball players have quit and/or transferred from Wofford.

Just an observation- not once have I seen anyone on this board question or disregard the commitment or the work of the student-athletes on the baseball team, and I hope I don't.

However, as a paid staff member, the coach was hired to be competitive in the conference, and in his sixth year, has not been so. Just as the student athletes are accountable for their academics if they participate on a team, Coach Traylor is accountable for his record, both in and out of conference.

Last year's SoCon record of 5-22 (.185) and overall record of 20-37 (.351) shouldn't be swept under the rug as a merely uncomfortable sidenote. The composite SoCon winning percentage for the seasons 2003-2006 has been .232 (27-89).

Assuming that a .500 record in conference play is considered acceptable, that represents a performance of 46.4%, which would not even come closed to cutting it as an academic average. If there's noticable improvement this year, I'll be the first to recognize the turnaround. If not, then a pattern merely continues.

I'm just glad the football team doesn't have the attitude of this former baseball player on the board. If that was the case we would be bragging about defeating Elon and making excuses about losing because we play in the toughest I-AA conference in america.

Playing big DI schools and beating one every now and then is cool. But 5-22 in the conference is unacceptable by even Wofford's standards. We didn't pour $$$ into this new stadium to go 5-22 in the conference.

I am positive that our baseball student-athletes are as committed as all of our others student-athletes and work just as hard on the field and in the classroom. Effort and dedication on their part is not and has never been the issue. Ultimately, as has been mentioned before, the success of the team, or in this case, lack thereof, has to be traced back to the man paid to lead it. The buck stops with Steve Traylor. Actually, given that we have sa number of talented returning players and some players coming back from injury, I am hopeful that we can be a competitive SoCon team this year and finish at .500 in the conference. But given the recent track record of the program, I'm not holding my breath for any improvement. At the very least, we have scheduled what look to be a number of very winnable non-conference home games at the start of the season, so I can't see the season being complete misery. But if we can't at least double our SoCon wins from 5 to 10, and 10 wins in the league is not asking for a lot really, I think we simply have to go in another direction with our head coach. I would suggest courting SMC baseball coach Tim Wallace (very successful at SMC, with a wife who works at Wofford), or trying to convince Mark Line to retake the job. I always liked him- he's a great guy.

I couldn't agree more with you all in the fact that the Wofford program has not had the success that it should have. I have seen the players and the talent level (since the opening of the new stadium) and I agree that the losing is an unacceptable trend. However, last year was a very promising year that got sidetracked due to some injuries. Two of the top 3 pitchers, the starting shortstop, and three out of the four seniors (the #1 pitcher who I believe is comnig back this year, and the center fielder leadoff hitter and the first base #4 hitter). The problem with Wofford is the lack of depth, therefore, it is tough to compete when a bunch of your top players get injured. I do believe that the players expect more (esp. after competing with top competition and beating USC - which is NOTHING like beating Elon in football...don't make comparisons between playing top baseball schools and playing a d1-AA schedule). I also believe that you are completely right that there is just something not directing the program in the right direction and I guess it all boils down to the head coach. Just by going to a few games early I have yet to see him give any type of pre-game speech/talk unless that takes place in the locker room. A coache should also help motivate the players and maybe that is what he is lacking.

As a former player under ML, he would be, by far, my first choice. They don't make em any better than 2-5. There isn't enough time nor space to express my feelings about ML as man and as a baseball coach. But Wallace is a Wofford grad (who still holds some offensive records) and is a good guy too and a good baseball guy. To refute the previous post, while we were D-II we did play D1 schools and beat them: Furman, Citadel to name few whom we regularly lose to now. Not to mention just as strong D-II competition in USCS, USC-A, etc. I don't expect us to win against D-1A competition but I do expect us to be more competitive against SoCon opponents. We haven't been competitive for some time. I think we have some talent and the kids are working hard (nobody is criticizing them) but I have heard some serious grumbling about Traylor by former players and parents which I, quite frankly, discount for a number of reasons (lack of pt, my kid is the best, personality, etc). However, based on what I know and perceive, we have a problem: a trend of not being competitive and it's not too much to ask to expect that trend to be broken. How we do that is for Traylor and the admin to decide. Look, everybody wants to win but finding our best chance to do that is the trick. I know more money would certainly help us but there seems to be other issues as well. To deny that is ridiculous.

I agree that Mark Line is a great guy and probably a great coach. I also agree that there isn't a reason for losing with the talent that Wofford has. The only thing I was saying, was don't compare playing a D2 schedule to the schedule that this team plays. It's not even close. No matter how strong you say USCS or whomever in DII is, they still are not even close to being the type of competition that is in the Socon or the non-conf. schedule that wofford today faces (with acceptions of A&T, etc.) So all I was saying is that you can't justify the team being a "trainwreck" bc back in the day Wofford used to win because it's comparing apples and oranges since the competition is completely different. I am in agreement though that the teams are not as bad as the record has shown. Every year I watch them lose to App and just wonder how?

We'll have to agree to disagree on that. In 1987, USC-A sent 3 pitchers (one being Hernandez)and 5 or 6 regular position guys to the pros. There isn't one team we play that does that today, not even Carolina.

Well that might be true of one team...but look at every weekend Wofford plays now...every team has at least one SP who will get drafted and many times the whole weekend is filled with guys who are lighting it up...And USC, Clemson, GA., GA Tech they were all in the college world series over the past few years..and are perrenial top 10 teams....you can't say that about USC-Spart. or Aiken...COC's whole staff was practically drafted as was all three starters for Ga. Southern and 2 from UNC-G this yr and 3 frmo the previous 2 yrs (the one guy mason is a top prospect in the Devil Rays org. even though he basically flipped us off when we were at the wofford game when he pitched)...and even Davidson has had like 2-3 stud pitchers who were drafted high...Furman's ex-stud is on the Indians now...two yrs ago wofford played USC and faced there #1 who is now a top prospect in all minors...last yr alone they beat the guy who was the top draft pick on the USC team...I just don't understand how you can compare a DI schedule that faces top 25 teams and a top 8 conf. in the country to a schedule (albeit a tough one - not taking anything away) with USC spart., etc...

I don't disagree that overall the schedule is tougher now because we play more D-1/Top 25 schools but just because we were not playing in the SoCon doesn't mean we didn't play a tough schedule back in the day. Yet, it still doesn't address the more important point that we managed to beat SoCon schools then and we obviously can't now which was the original issue. I don't care how many D-1/Top 25 teams we play and lose to because I don't expect us to play with those guys. I do expect us to play with and, more than 5 times a year, beat teams that are in our league or are similar to us. Is our league tougher top to bottom than years past? Maybe, maybe not (COC is, App St. is not). It's a great rhetorical, theoretical question to debate over a beer or 2. But there is no way you can tell me we should accept losing 22 conference games a year regardless of many times in past years we have beaten those same teams. Injuries may explain last year but they don't explain the last 10 years. That is my biggest concern.

Good point. Though we did beat Carolina. You are right though, there is no reason for us to lose 22 games...esp. when two yrs ago Wofford swept Ga. Southern at GSU...which hasn't been done in like 14 yrs. I just don't get how you can play so well some weekends (and on days against USC and Georgia) but then play so poorly some other weekends.

As an alum whose closest experience to baseball was church-league softball, I hope you two guys will stay on the board during baseball season, continue your discussions, and keep us old guys between the ditches.

It's great to see some good discussion on a sport that doesn't get as much attention as it should.

I could care less if we lose every game against USC, Clemson, GTech, etc. Even losing all three to a team like CofC wouldn't hurt my feelings. But to go 5-22 in the conf is not what we should be proud of.

My problem with this program is we can't beat the schools we should beat. Look at the schools we lost series to last year: